I toiled during my studies in the early 1960s to make sense of its focus on marginal calculations and “indifference curves” but can remember only the following lessons from my four years engrossed in economics books
the strictness of the various preconditions which governed the idea of (perfect) competition – making it a highly improbable occurrence;
the questionable nature of the of notion of “profit-maximisation”;
the belief (thanks to the writings of James Burnham and Tony Crosland) that management (not ownership) was the all- important factor
trust (thanks to Keynes whose work was dinned into me) in the ability of government to deal with such things as “exuberant expectations”
the realization (through the report of the 1959 Radcliffe Commission) that cash was but a small part of money supply. Financial economics was in its infancy then.
For
someone with my education and political motivation and experience,
however, my continued financial illiteracy is almost criminal but
not, I feel, in any way unusual. Most of us seem to lack the
patience to buckle down and take the time and discipline it needs to
understand the operation of the system of financial capitalism
which now has us all in its thrall.
We leave it to the "experts"
and have thereby surrendered what is left to us of citizenship and
political power. Like many people, I’ve clicked, skimmed and saved
– but rarely gone back to read thoroughly. The folders in which
they have collected have had various names – such as “urgent
reading” or “what is to be done” – but rarely accessed.
Occasionally I remember one and blog about it.
There are, however, a couple of short books which I heartily recommend for anyone wanting to beat the (w)ankers in the banks - The Production of Money – how to break the power of bankers by Ann Pettifor (2017) and Just Money – mission-driven banks and the future of finance Kaufer and Stepanopolous (2021)
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